In Fairfield County and throughout much of the country, leaders of the
Catholic Church, compelled by a recent scandal that began in the Boston
Archdiocese, have redefined their policies on sexual abuse and, in some
cases, made the names of clergy accused of sexual abuse public for the
first time.

In the Diocese of Bridgeport, Bishop William E. Lori said he would review
the files of all 285 priests and 86 deacons in the diocese to ensure that
no clergy pose a threat to children. Bishop Lori, who celebrated his first
year as Bridgeport's bishop last week, said he would also create an advisory
board of psychologists, physicians and legal experts to deal with sexual
misconduct in the clergy.

Joseph McAleer, spokesman for the Bridgeport diocese, refused to comment
on an article in The Hartford Courant last week that was based on sealed
court documents. That article said that Cardinal Edward M. Egan, former
leader of Bridgeport's 363,000 Catholics and now head of the New York
Archdiocese, had covered up abuse by clergy and allowed priests to continue
to work after allegations of abuse had surfaced.

But, Mr. McAleer said the diocese has had a sexual misconduct policy
in place since January 1991, which Cardinal Egan helped institute, and
said it was effective.

"It's a good policy, it's a policy that works, it's a policy that
we believe in," Mr. McAleer said.

In April 1990 the Archdiocese of Hartford adopted a similar "zero
tolerance" policy that requires priests to report to the diocese
any allegations of sexual abuse involving priests and other church employees.
But, the Rev. John Gatzak, director of communications for the archdiocese,
said Bishop Daniel A. Cronin, head of the Hartford archdiocese and its
nearly 757,000 Roman Catholics, had no plans to review the records of
his 416 priests and 333 deacons.

At this time, he is "not going to be reviewing the files because
he knows what's there," Father Gatzak said.

In the Diocese of Norwich, Bishop Daniel A. Hart, the head of the diocese
and its 214,000 Catholics, has written two pastoral letters since Cardinal
Bernard Law of Boston turned over the names of more than 80 priests accused
of sexual abuse. In those letters, Bishop Hart apologized for sexual abuse
by the clergy.

Bishop Hart, who served as auxiliary bishop in the Boston Archdiocese
before coming to Norwich in November 1995, has said the diocese's policy
on sexual abuse is adequate. That policy, established in 1991, requires
all accusations of sexual abuse made against an employee of the diocese
be reported to law enforcement officials and the State Department of Children
and Families.

Bishop Hart would not say how many complaints of sexual abuse the diocese
has received, and turned over, since 1991 and said that he did not know
how many complaints there were before 1991 or how those complaints were
handled.

The bishop would not comment on whether he would be reviewing church
files or if he planned on turning the names of clergy members accused
of sexual abuse before 1991 over to authorities.

"I have no statement to make about that at this time," Bishop
Hart said.

His silence has angered two Windham County men, whose eldest brother
committed suicide in 1991, years after, according to court documents,
he was sexually assaulted by a priest in Putnam. They want the diocese
to make public the names of all priests in its jurisdiction who have been
accused of sexual abuse.

"Hart could be a hero and step up and do something," said John
Deary of Pomfret. "I don't know why he won't."

Without full public disclosure of sexual assault accusations made against
priests, the brothers said there is no way of knowing how many incidents
there have been.

"The further you dig, the more cases there are," said Gene
Michael Deary of Brooklyn. "In a couple of weeks in Boston, we've
seen hundreds of complaints we never knew existed. Who knows how many
more there could be here?"

The Norwich diocese has been a defendant in at least four cases of clergy
sexual abuse, court records in two Connecticut and one New Mexico court
show.

The most recent, filed in June 2000 in Norwich Superior Court, names
Bishop Hart in a suit against Richard T. Buongirno, a former priest of
the diocese who served until 1999 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Middletown.
In June 1999, Mr. Buongirno was arrested by the State Police on charges
that he sexually abused a 9-year-old boy while he was the pastor of St.
Matthias Church in East Lyme.

Mr. Buongirno, who has pleaded not guilty, resigned as a priest shortly
after his arrest. According to papers filed by Joseph Sweeney, the lawyer
representing Mr. Buongirno and the diocese, Mr. Buongirno served in Cromwell
and Middletown parishes for more than four years after he admitted to
Bishop Daniel P. Reilly, head of the diocese at the time, that he had
molested a high school student in the early 1970's, a decade before he
entered the priesthood. Mr. Sweeney said Mr. Buongirno has admitted to
the high school charges, but denied he molested the 9-year-old in East
Lyme. The trial is scheduled to resume on April 2 at Norwich Superior
Court.

In May, 1999 a lawsuit was filed in Middletown against the Rev. Raymond
Jean, who was last assigned in 1984 to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Gales
Ferry, the year he was defrocked. The suit says that Mr. Jean, who died
last year, committed numerous acts of sexual assault, sexual abuse and
sexual exploitation on a child from the ages of 9 to 13, beginning in
1973 while he served at the Notre Dame Church in Durham.

That case is partially sealed and still pending. Mr. Sweeney said that
a judge in an earlier lawsuit, filed by the same man, against the diocese
over Mr. Jean had ruled that the diocese was not responsible for his actions
and dismissed the suit.

In 1995, Matthew J. Nutt and Mark D. Nutt, twin brothers, filed a lawsuit
in United States District Court in Hartford against the diocese claiming
they were repeatedly sexually abused by their parish priest, the Rev.
Thomas J. Doyle, while he served at St. Bernard's Parish Church in the
Tolland County town of Rockville in the late 1970's. According to the
lawsuit, the brothers reported the abuse to the superiors of Mr. Doyle,
who was then transferred to another church in the diocese. He was eventually
defrocked in 1992. The lawsuit also says that state authorities were never
notified. While the judges said the boys were indeed molested, they dismissed
the suit because they said the diocese was not responsible. Attempts to
reach Mr. Doyle were unsuccessful.

The case of Rev. Bernard W. Bissonnette, who served in several Norwich
diocese parishes in the 1950's and 1960's, is an example of what critics
of the church said was all too common: the transferring of priests repeatedly
accused of sexual abuse. The accusations against Mr. Bissonnette reach
all the way to New Mexico.

In December 1998, a New Mexico Court of Appeals found that the Diocese
of Norwich could be sued for damages by a New Mexico man who said he was
sexually abused by Mr. Bissonnette between 1966 and 1968. He had been
transferred to a parish in New Mexico in 1966, but remained on the payroll
of the Norwich disocese. He is no longer a priest.

Court documents, provided by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., say that
Mr. Bissonnette was the priest who molested Thomas Deary.

The court in New Mexico found that the Norwich diocese was subject to
the jurisdiction of the state's courts in Mr. Bissonnette's case.

The diocese appealed the decision in December 1998 and the case is pending
before the New Mexico Supreme Court.

In 1991 the Dearys worked with the newly formed Pastoral Care Committee,
the group that set up the diocese's "zero tolerance" policy
of sexual abuse complaints. That year, following a long bout with mental
illness and two failed marriages, Thomas Deary III killed himself. He
was 44.

"It was pretty clear why Tommy wanted to go to heaven," Gene
Deary said. "He believed he'd be more peaceful there than he was
here."

The Norwich diocese would not comment on Mr. Bissonnette, known as "Father
Barney" to the altar boys who served Mass for him at St. Mary's Church
in Putnam in the early 1960's. He has been accused of molesting and raping
scores of young boys across the country, according to a file maintained
by the Rev. Ron Wolf, the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santa
Fe, N.M., and submitted to the court in New Mexico.

According to court documents, in 1958 at the age of 26, Mr. Bissonnette,
a North Grosvenordale native, was first assigned as an assistant priest
in Christ the King Parish in Old Lyme, but stayed there less than one
year. He was transferred to St. Michael's Church in Pawcatuck, but remained
in that assignment for only three months after there were allegations
of sexual abuse in that parish.

Mr. Bissonnette was transferred to All Hollows Parish in the Moosup section
of Plainfield, but was transferred to St. Mary's Church in Putnam in June
1962 after parishioners complained of "familiarities" with boys,
the doucuments say.

It was there that Thomas Deary, then 13, was molested, the documents
say. Gene and John Deary said that in April 1963, after their brother
returned from a fishing trip with Mr. Bissonnette, during which the priest
later admitted the two engaged in mutual masturbation, according to court
documents, Thomas told his father he had been molested that day and raped
several times earlier.

The documents say that his father reported this to a St. Mary's monsignor,
and that Mr. Bissonnette was transferred to the Servants of the Paraclete,
a monastic order in Jemez Springs, N.M., which operated the Via Coeli
retreat center that specialized in treating pedophilia priests.

"Only now do we know what a mistake not going to the police right
away was," Gene Deary said.

Ultimately, Mr. Bissonnette was transferred to nine parishes throughout
New Mexico, Michigan and Minnesota in the 30 years after he left St. Mary's
in Putnam. At each of these parishes, he left or was force out after he
was accused of sexually molesting one or more children, the documents
say.

Mr. Bissonnette could not be located.

Gene Deary was scheduled to meet with Bishop Hart for the first time
Friday and ask the bishop to turn Mr. Bissonnette over to Connecticut
and New Mexico state police and to their states' attorneys offices, even
though the statute of limitations has passed.

Mr. Deary, who has taken no legal action against Mr. Bissonnette, said
he hoped that some day the statute of limitations is extended. Bishop
Hart refused to comment on the meeting.

"If he is willing to turn over Bissonnette's name, which I'm not
sure he's willing to do, then we'll set a precedent and we'll open the
floodgates for all the names to be released," Mr. Deary said.

[Photos: The Rev. Bernard W. Bissonnette, accused in numerous cases of
sexual assault, served at St. Mary's Church in Putnam in the early 1960's.
(C. M. Glover for The New York Times)(pg. 6); Thomas Deary, shown with
a nephew in 1987, killed himself in 1991. His brothers want public disclosure
of all sexual assault accusations made against priests. (pg. 5); Gene
Michael Deary, left, and John Deary with a snapshot of their brother Thomas.
According to court records, Thomas was sexually assaulted by a priest
in Putnam and committed suicide years later, in 1991. (C. M. Glover for
The New York Times)(pg. 1)]